If you can remain in sin it’s possible you haven’t met the holiness of God. When you meet the holiness of God, bad habits and addictions die away or, in many cases, instantly stop. If you truly enter His presence there is a holy fear that you can’t forget. You will put aside your vices and abandon the sin you have clung to.
We are human and we fail daily, but the difference for Christians is we can’t stay in habitual sin and have peace with it so that grace will increase. If you don’t have that holy fear, keep reading. Holy fear allows you to go through great adversity with courage. Job knew holy fear.
Job asked his counselors in verse 13:11, “Will not His Majesty terrify you?” The Holy Spirit is our Helper; it’s God helping us to become and stay holy. This is sanctification.
We had a sacrifice for our sins: a lamb. The word used in Revelation chapter 5 verse 44 lamb in the Greek (biblehub.com is great for non Greek scholars) was arnion. I looked up that word and found it was the diminutive form of the word lamb: like lambkin. Lambkin is defined by dictionary.com as a little lamb or someone who is pure and innocent. Sounds like someone you know.
During Passover feasts, families in Israel were required to keep the Passover lamb in the house as a pet for four days. Can you imagine how attached the family became to that pet? After four days, I would be broken up about its death. That’s the point. We should be that broken about sin in our life.
How are we able to keep ourselves from sin? We can’t that’s the work of the Holy Spirit. What we can do is bathe ourselves in His word daily. I’m not talking a five or 10 minute bath. I’m talking a good hour long soak!
A growing Christian wants quality and quantity time with God.
I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! Revelation 3:15
This was written to the church at Laodicea in modern day Turkey in the Lycos River valley. They had a mineral Hot Springs there which was very comforting and healing. Even they would put the hot water in their wine to drink it. They also had an availability of really cold water from snow melt off from a nearby Mount Cadmus.
Most people love to chase after the best cup of hot coffee. Most people want their soft drinks ice cold. Most people aren’t into room temperature beverages and find them nauseating. This verse reveals the heart of Jesus: he wants us to burn hot for Him. He already loves us that way.
You may have heard your pastor say you need to spend time with the Lord daily, but not expound on that. Here’s my formula: pray, read, worship music and pray. Repeat. I aim for an hour or more in the morning. I feed my soul before my body: no Bible, no breakfast. On days off it’s double or triple that time. It’s a relationship, not a box to check off and He is either first priority or He is not.
I need time God at lunch too. I need time with Him after work and before bed. He is my most precious friend. This may seem radical to some readers, what is what I want for me. When I am properly in fellowship with God, I am undone by His holiness.
Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among the people of unclean lips. Isaiah 6:4
He is holy and deserves our praise and adoration because of who He is. It’s great that we have redemption and sanctification through Jesus, but His holiness is marvelous beyond words. Let Him know that today!
Following Jesus 